McCain set to launch international think tank for interventionists

According to a report on azcentral.com, Sen. John McCain’s political legacy is set to be preserved with a high-profile new institute:

“The charge of the McCain Institute for International Leadership fits in perfectly with Arizona State University’s core mission of having a significant positive impact on the larger community, and we are grateful to Senator McCain for his support of this important university endeavor,” ASU President Michael Crow said in a written statement. “It will be guided by the values that have animated the career of Senator McCain — a commitment to sustaining America’s global leadership role, promoting freedom, democracy and human rights, as well as maintaining a strong, smart national defense.”

Sen. McCain, whose political career was a product of organized crime, deserves to be remembered for his longstanding service on Capitol Hill, especially for his supporting role to Sen. Joe Lieberman in promoting American involvement in wars for Israel.

Update: For those who still believe that there is any significant difference between “conservatives” like McCain and “liberals” or “progressives” in what passes for mainstream American political discourse, Steve Clemons’ puff piece for the McCain Institute offers a salutary corrective. Clemons, who describes himself as a “progressive realist,” writes on his Washington Note blog:

Despite some of my foreign policy differences — like the whole bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran thing — with Senator John McCain who once told me he was “the original neoconservative”, I have always greatly, truly admired his patriotism and dedication to trying to get the American political system to operate honestly and in a way consistent with what the framers of the Constitution intended. He has been a major voice in the country on campaign and elections reform, on fiscal matters, on national security, on immigration, and on leadership in every sense.

His body of work actually deserves a library to house it — but our system doesn’t give those who come in second place for the Presidency a National Archives run operation. Instead, McCain and a bipartisan group of supporters — including Senators Kelly Ayotte, Sheldon Whitehouse, Lindsey Graham, Mark Udall, Joe Lieberman, Carl Levin as well as CIA Director David Petraeus, and others — are punctuating the start of a new university-based institute committed to the leadership principles John McCain exhibited and encouraged, particularly in young people.

There are some who would agree that McCain’s “body of work actually deserves a library to house it” — albeit not in the fawning sense intended by Clemons. With permission, I reproduce here a comment that is unlikely to appear in The Washington Note from a genuine American patriot who knows McCain and his “progressive” admirer all too well:

Steve —

Until I saw this, I would have said the jury is still out on whether you are an asset of those who have all but destroyed this fine nation from within. With your endorsement of John McCain, all doubt has been removed. I trust that the readers who view your opinions as credible will take the time to review the real facts of this treasonous and pathetic “public servant” who was a political “production” of those who also pegged you as an asset.

Might I suggest that your readers read Guilt By Association–How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War (2008) with three chapters JUST ON MCCAIN, including one chapter published on the Criminal State website (see below). Search online for “John McCain: A Closer Look at Evil” for a 15-part series. That could easily have been a 30-part series. Yes, he is that bad.

His commander as a POW in Vietnam wanted him brought up on charges of treason four decades ago. Too bad that was blocked. There may yet be hope that he will be charged with that capital offense for what he did to take us to war in Iraq along with soul mate Joe Lieberman. At least Joe was a True Believer. John is just a pathetic and oft-used asset.

In any case, delighted to see you once again show your true colors as a classic asset. You were clearly tagged long, long ago and continue to perform as profiled. Birds of a feather….